Ford Motor Co.’s Nondestructive Evaluation Laboratory (NDE) in Livonia, Michigan, is a leading facility for quality test inspection and failure analysis of automotive components. Historically, many of the automaker’s manufacturing programs depended heavily on coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) during their testing phases. That is, until Ford started using optical-structured light scanners.

Because point clouds rendered by a CMM can’t fully describe a part or visually display trends and dimensional variations, measurement results weren’t as accurate as Ford wanted them to be. A program would fail to meet its deadlines and also experience high scrap rates. 

Ford’s prototype V8 crankshafts, which experienced extreme out-of-balance conditions during launch, were one example where better measurements could save time and money. “CMM results showed all crankshafts to be within specification tolerances,” says Beverly Minicilli, a Ford manufacturing engineer. “Because CMMs only capture discrete predefined points, they failed to illustrate a significant imbalance scrap issue that an optical 3D scanner clearly identified.”

 …